Editor’s Note: The application window for our North America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa scholarships closes on Thursday, Dec 6, 2018. Our Asia-Pacific scholarship application will open in Spring 2019. You can find the most up to date information on the Women Techmakers Scholars site.

Through the Women Techmakers Scholars Program - formerly the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Program, Google is furthering Dr. Anita Borg’s vision of creating gender equality in the field of computer science by encouraging women to excel in computing and technology and become active leaders and role models in the field.

Students selected for the scholarship will receive a financial award for the 2020-21 academic year and will be invited to the annual Google Scholars' Retreat in their region next summer. At the retreat, scholars participate in networking and development sessions, including sessions on how to lead outreach in their communities. In addition, scholars join a long term community, offering guidance and support in outreach and personal development.

Meet some of our current scholars from across the globe as they share their experiences with the program and advice to those applying:

Zoe Tagboto, Africa

Zoe is currently an undergraduate computer science student in Africa. When one of her lecturers encouraged her to apply, she wasn’t sure if she’d be qualified. She took a chance and advises those who feel they’re not ready to trust themselves and reflect on the impact they’ve had on their communities – no matter how big or small.

“Take the plunge. Tech is fascinating and multifaceted. You aren’t restricted. You can be creative in so many different ways. It feels like you are doing magic. Once you’ve made the decision to pursue this field it is important to find your community. Having support or people who can drive you can inspire and motivate. Having a mentor is also a great resource that will help guide you as you progress through your career.”

Zoe explains that her highlight of being a scholar includes attending the Scholar’s Retreat in London this summer, as well as receiving a travel grant to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration where she had a chance to connect with other scholars and many other women in tech.

Kati Elizabeth, Australia

Kati is currently an undergraduate student studying human computer interaction, UX, and product management in Australia. She was reading about the Grace Hopper Celebration when she spotted the scholarship and decided to apply.

Her advice to potential applicants is, “Do not second guess yourself. Apply! You are so much cooler than you give yourself credit for, and you absolutely should just go for it. Secondly, I would say to spend time on answering the questions thoughtfully. Write out dot points answers first and then expand on them.” Outside of the application, she also recommends joining a club or society related to your field of study, and attending local hackathons and talks to meet and learn from people with similar interests.

“For me, the highlight was the retreat and meeting all the other amazing scholars & Googlers. Every scholar genuinely cared about making the world a better place. In the STEM industries there are fewer women than men, and this means we often find ourselves working in isolation. Now we have an incredible network of smart and inspiring women in tech. I made some life-long friends and allies.”

Lena Ngungu, North America

Lena is currently an undergraduate student in North America and will be graduating next year to pursue a career as a software engineer. She heard about the scholarship through the Women Techmakers newsletter and decided to apply. Her advice to potential applicants while writing essays is to be authentic and demonstrate a passion for what you have accomplished and hope to accomplish – especially in the tech industry.

“Being a scholar, I feel more competitive on the market which is very empowering. However, the people, my fellow scholars, would be the highlight of my journey. They have been a true inspiration. Having stayed in touch with them has motivated me to continue to give my best, as they are continuing to do so too and achieving so much. I love having a network of outstanding people who are caring and supportive.”

Melissa Rossi, Europe

Melissa is currently a research student in France specializing in Cryptology. A former scholar got her thinking about what she has done for women in tech and what more she can do which motivated her to apply for the scholarship.

She says the retreat was an opportunity to meet many original and independent minds that left her inspired. Her motivation to challenge gender inequality in scientific research has been boosted after this experience. She sums up advice to potential applicants, “Be positive! Go for it – you will never stop being amazed by what can be achieved.” She encourages women to speak out and continue a dialogue about the underrepresentation of women in technology.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 - Oct 15), Google hosted a Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Latinx/Hispanic student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. We ended up receiving so may great submissions that we decided to make this a three-part blog series. This is the final piece. We’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories.

ICYMI, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this post.Diana Lee Guzman

Diana Lee Guzman is a recent graduate from New York University with a B.S. in Computer Science. She grew up in Phoenix, AZ in a primarily Latinx community. She is currently the Founder/CEO of Coding in Color and a Software Engineer at Boeing.

Diana started her non-profit, Coding in Color, with the purpose of providing educational resources to underrepresented students in computing. “Over the past 9 months, I had the pleasure of working alongside two of my amazing high school colleagues, Lirio and Robert, to create a Summer Coding Camp, specifically for our community. We worked alongside our high school administration (Carl Hayden Community High School) where they provided us with a classroom and computers. The course was sponsored by individual members of the community who helped with supplies and providing stipends for students. I taught the course for three weeks where we covered topics such as Web Development, Object Orientated Programming, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence.”

After the course ended, Diana continued mentoring, and along with her mentee, created websites for two local Latina business owners with businesses catering towards the Spanish speaking community.

What inspires Diana about Hispanic Heritage Month

"What I enjoy the most about Hispanic Heritage month is being able to see all these amazing opportunities being acted on by people just like me, people who speak like me, eat some of the same food as me and listen to the same music as me. I enjoy seeing the celebration of our cultures and accomplishments and it always makes me hopeful that the next generation, next graduating class, next wave of us will be able to accomplish more than we ever have."Katerina Alvarez

Katerina Alvarez is a Posse Foundation Scholar at Mount Holyoke College studying Statistics and Sociology. Katerina is a Latina civic leader and STEM advocate committed to “engaging purposefully in mutually-beneficial community partnerships to advance social justice, education and community development with tech.”

Through her work as a Mount Holyoke Community-Based Learning (CBL) STEM Fellow for The Care Center, a transformative education program, Katerina helps support and empower young Latinx mothers to complete their high school equivalency exams and pursue higher education and successful careers in tech.

“For the past year, I've recruited over 50 Spanish-speaking tutors and developed an innovative partnership with Makerspace – a laboratory on campus which aims at inspiring and educating underrepresented women in STEM by blending the arts and sciences together to create fun and engaging workshops. As I continue collaborating with The Care Center, I am also mentoring and supporting 30 other CBL Fellows, to help them build successful and sustainable partnerships with their community partners.”

Katerina’s advice to others
"Remember: Never assume, be transparent, and complete a '360 review' frequently, so you may learn from the organization and volunteers about what is and what isn't working."

What inspires Katerina about Hispanic Heritage Month
"Hispanic Heritage Month inspires me because it reminds me of my Cuban grandparents who taught me the importance of perseverance, determination, and believing in the unbelievable. I remember my grandfather, a 90-year old tennis player and painter, vividly sharing their story of love and sacrifice as they immigrated to the US while my wise and practical grandmother fact-checked him along the way. They've empowered me to embrace my roots and live my best life with passion and resilience. This month, and every month, I celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month for my grandparents, Aba y Abu."

Angel Ortega

Angel is a graduate student at The University of Texas at El Paso. He was born and raised in Mexico City before moving to El Paso to seek an education. He is an avid learner with interests in technology, culture, foreign languages, and education. He is also a big Harry Potter fan.

Angel has been a long-time member of the Sol y Agua Project. The Sol y Agua Project aims to attract middle school students, specifically minorities, from the Rio Grande Region into STEM fields and careers with a focus on water sustainability, biodiversity, and the human-impact on the environment. “I combined my passion for technology and education with my background as a minority, international student, and Computer Science major to teach children in El Paso about computing, computational thinking, and water.” His goal is to help and inspire young students to pursue a higher education, ideally in STEM.

Angel is also very active in the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI). He was recently selected as a CAHSI Scholar and currently acts as the CAHSI Student Coordinator for the Google TechExchange Program.Angel’s advice to others
“Sometimes the things with the most impact are those that seem the least significant. You'll never know how impactful you can be, until you try. Go out there and be the change you want to see in your community.”

Orlando Gil

Orlando lives in Harlem, New York. He is graduating soon from Baruch College with a concentration in Data Analytics.

On campus, Orlando helped over 30 undocumented students share their stories in a university publication. “My mission is to uplift the contributions of immigrants in American society, and positively shape the rhetoric towards undocumented immigrants. It has taught me the value of owning one's story and using it to combat stereotypes.”

As an intern at the U.S. House of Representatives, Orlando helped lobby on behalf of undocumented students such as himself and “bring light to the various issues faced by those of us who are currently DACA recipients.”

“Although the efforts to pass the DREAM Act, a legislative solution, were not successful, I see far more value in the self-determination of immigrants as natural entrepreneurs. For that reason, I am passionate about helping undocumented entrepreneurs bridge gaps in business and technical expertise.” This is why he has launched his new initiative – Dream Ventures NYC. “Dream Ventures is a springboard for innovation, education and communal entrepreneurship within the immigrant community. We help ‘UndocuPreneurs’ finance their bold ideas, and pair them with experienced advisors.”

Through advocacy, Orlando has been able to share and perform his writing at various magazine launch events, festivals, and television.

Orlando’s advice to others

“Know yourself and understand your ties to your own community. It will reinforce your passion for helping and persevering through constant challenges. Also, analyze your available network and see how you can create value. Value is not always determined by the structure of power—one may not have the power to bring about overnight change, but one can gradually and creatively find the resources to do so.”

Andreina Martinez

Andreina Martinez is currently a senior at The City College of New York majoring in Psychology with an interest in public service. She is from the Dominican Republic and came to the United States in 2010.

Andreina volunteers as a High School Educator, with Peer Health Exchange, an organization that wants to provide young kids with the right tools and information to make smart decisions about their health. She previously interned with the New York State Senate where she focused on constituent casework ranging from housing issues to military benefits. After spending last summer in Washington D.C “interning and learning more about the legislative process our nation goes through,” Andreina took on another internship in the New York City Council where she works to help low income communities and immigrants.Andreina’s advice to others

"We don't know who we can impact with our actions and even with our words. It's extremely important to know the value of your voice and your story, when you are able to share those things with the world you will see change in your communities. Give it a try!"

Itzel Tapia

Itzel is currently a junior attending the University of Texas at Dallas full-time on a full scholarship. She is majoring in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence with a minor in Cognitive Science. She was born in Dallas, Texas, after her parents immigrated from Mexico. She is the first person in her family to attend college, and has a three year old daughter.

When Itzel returned to school in 2016 she began volunteering at with Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society in the form of scholarship fundraisers, food drives, and mentorship. This is where she found her passion – helping other students.

Itzel began mentoring classmates on the abundance of resources available to help them succeed. This led to helping with scholarship applications, class registration, major exploration, university admissions, and even tutoring. Eventually she began reaching out to high school juniors and seniors who desperately needed help navigating their last years of high school, in preparation for college.

“It is so common to encounter Hispanic students who are intimidated and thus unsure of whether they should attend college. There is so little help offered in the advising offices, and so many resources that go unused. I’ve always loved research, so collecting a growing list of resources, scholarship opportunities, and the like came naturally – once I knew where to look.”

“First-generation college students cannot count on the experience of our parents to help guide us in our journeys, we rely solely on our own grit, and the few generous mentors we encounter along the way. I felt personally responsible to be that mentor to every student I met who needed help.”

Itzel is also passionate about increasing the interest of girls and women in STEM. She has begun mentoring girls who cannot afford coding/robotics camps, and hopes to inspire them and give them the self-confidence to become the engineers, scientists, and doctors of the future.What inspires Itzel about Hispanic Heritage Month?
“I am inspired by the stories of other Latinx who come from humble backgrounds and still find their own ways to help our community. It’s a powerful thing to see a mother of four, raising money for scholarships by throwing a Tamalada. It gives great comfort knowing that I’ll never be alone, and that no matter what, someone will always step-in to offer me their help with a few Tamales in tow.”

Welcome to the 31st installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I was born in Ciudad Ojeda, Venezuela and moved to Miami, Florida when I was ten years old. Shortly after high school, I joined the Marine Corps where I served for 4 years as a Hygiene Equipment Operator. I was very fortunate because once my chain of command learned of my technical abilities, I was allowed to use these skills as an unofficial Information Systems Coordinator. In this capacity I helped manage our computers and networking equipment during my two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After finishing my active duty service, I attended Miami Dade College, where I received my associate’s degree in Business Administration. After two years of working as an on-site customer engineer, I decided to go back to school for my bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Florida International University.

I am obsessed with new technology and in particular, hardware. When I am not at work, I spend time looking for ways to integrate new technology into my home. I am generally the first to buy and test new tech.

Volunteering at one of the numerous student conferences Jesus helps out at.

What’s your role at Google?
I am currently a Windows Systems Administrator. My team, WinOps, develops, maintains, and supports all the Windows OS related infrastructure for use within Google. We are directly responsible for the configuration and health of all Windows clients and we own the infrastructure and build process for all Windows servers. Within my team, I am part of the configuration management group – specifically tasked with ensuring systems are compliant with internal policy configurations.

What I like most about this role is the continuous evolution. We are always looking for ways to innovate and improve our service offerings. As much as possible we collaborate with other platform teams (Linux and Mac) to build cross-platform tools.

I am currently rewriting a Linux specific tool to work on all other platforms, and integrate a Firebase Cloud Messaging listener to receive notifications from a centralized location. This new software will allow us to manage software distribution and enforcement throughout the fleet, and how tech support teams manage software requests and assist users in getting what they need to get their job done.

Complete the following: "I [choose one: code/create/design/build] for …"
I build to provide a good Windows user experience while maintaining platform security.

What inspires you to come in every day?
I am grateful I get to work with an amazing and supportive team, and the projects I get to work on are always challenging and help me grow both personally and professionally.

I am also very excited about the direction we are headed as Google's cloud business continues to grow. We are constantly looking for opportunities to open source our tools so that other systems administrators can have alternate ways of solving problems we've faced.

In my current project, we are migrating our software distribution tools into solutions that are used across all of our platforms, are largely automated, use code review processes to manage changes, and are more scalable. This results in releases that are easier to track and maintain, saving us countless engineering hours.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process?

During my associate’s degree, I did a project about Google and discovered a lot of information about the culture and many of the perks.

On my last semester at FIU I applied to many companies in South Florida, and even after graduation I had not heard from any of them. As I looked through many different career sites, I decided to see if Google had a job opening that matched my skills. I had applied to many different large companies in Silicon Valley, but I hadn’t heard back from any of them and was sure that Google would be the same way.

Since I was working and attending school full-time, I was unable to take any internships in order to gain real-world experience in IT. However, my job as a Customer Engineer required being knowledgeable in over 20 distinct systems, being capable of troubleshooting issues to root cause, and having great customer service skills.

Two weeks after graduation, I discovered Google’s Information Technology Residency Program and applied for the job. Even though it was a fixed term position, it was an opportunity to work at Google, and see what it was like from the inside.

How did the recruitment process go for you?
It was a smooth, though long process. I applied directly from the careers site job posting on December 23, 2011, and received the first email from a recruiter on January 3rd, 2012. I had my technical phone screen scheduled on January 7th in the afternoon, and two days later I received a call from the recruiter inviting me for on-site interviews in Mountain View, CA.

My on-site interview date was set two months after the phone screen, which allowed me to brush up on many of the topics I felt I could have done better during the phone screen.

I received the results from the interviews the day before my birthday, and I was so excited when I heard the news from the recruiter, that I accepted without waiting to hear the rest of the offer.

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
Recruiters often send or mention topics that may be covered during the technical interviews, focus on those during your studying.

Some available positions may have a time constraint, be sure to work with your recruiter or coordinator to ensure you have ample time to study prior to the technical interviews.

Can you tell us about the resources you used to prepare for your interview or role?
I read "The Google Resume" by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. I found it to be an invaluable resource, and it helped me a great deal.

I read a lot of books on basic IT topics, as the job that I applied for was as an IT generalist. It was tough deciding on what was important, so I focused at the time on having a good understanding of how things worked. I used CBT Nuggets, and other video training tools I could get my hands on. Since I used to drive a lot, I used them like audiobooks and kept track of topics that I needed to view later for additional understanding.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers?
Anything on your resume is fair game, ensure that you can talk at length about anything on it. I personally had listed a number of programming languages on my resume without specifying a level of expertise and was asked to solve a programming problem during my initial interviews, even though the role didn't necessarily require coding skills.

It's best to think out loud, ask clarifying questions, and verify your assumptions with the interviewer, to avoid going too far in the wrong direction in an interview. Do your research about the role you’re applying for, and think of questions you want answered by your interviewers.

Google's research tackles the most challenging problems in CS and related fields. Being bold and taking risks is essential to what we do, and research teams are embedded throughout Google, allowing our discoveries to affect billions of users each day.

The compelling benefit to researchers is that their innovations can be implemented fast and big. Google’s unique infrastructure facilitates ideas’ speed to market – allowing their ideas to be trialled by millions of users before their papers are even published.

Today we’re talking to PhD Research Intern, Renata Khasanova, a student from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. As an intern with one of our Google AI research teams in the Zürich office, Renata’s work focused on noise resynthesis. Read on!

So tell us about yourself and your PhD topic …
I am currently pursuing my PhD in the signal processing group in EPFL Lausanne under the supervision of Professor Pascal Frossard. My main research topic is extending deep neural network systems to irregular domains such as graphs. For example, we have recently shown that we gain significant accuracy improvement when using graphs for omnidirectional image classification tasks.

Why did you apply for an internship at Google and how supportive was your PhD advisor?
I was always very interested in doing applied research and Google offers the unique opportunity to work on various research topics in application to real tasks. Therefore during my PhD, I decided to apply for an internship in the Compression group led by Jyrki Alakuijala. My supervisor, Professor Frossard, was very supportive and saw this as a great opportunity for me.

What project was your internship focused on?
I worked on improving the new compression algorithm, PIK, designed at Google. My project was really challenging and fun. The main goal of my project was to improve the quality of PIK at the high compression rate.

At Google we care about the responsiveness of web pages, and we look for new ways to make loading faster. Transferring large amounts of data is one reason for slowness, and images constitute a large fraction of that data traffic. This can be mitigated by compressing images more, but higher compression rates reduce visual quality. In this work, we propose a method for resynthesizing the noise that is commonly lost in image compression. We show that resynthesizing the noise increases the perceived quality of the images.

Zoom of dancer’s back with three variations: 1. normal compressed version 2. uncompressed original 3. compressed version with added noise.

In our study we looked at the impact of noise generation within the PIK image compression algorithm. With higher compression densities, details disappear and images look overly smooth. Our noise re-generation system keeps the images looking more natural even when aggressively compressed.

In both experiments we conducted (one focused on perceived quality, the other on perceived authenticity), we saw improvements well above the 95% confidence level. The images are more pleasant for the users and the added noise makes compressed images look more natural.Did you publish at Google during your internship?
In the end of the internship, we published a paper describing our approach. I really enjoyed the process of writing the paper as all my colleagues were very supportive and helped me a lot. I have also received a lot of help from other teams in Google regarding the user study experiments. Overall the whole process of publishing was very easy and enjoyable.

How closely connected was the work you did during your internship to your PhD topic?
During my internship, I had the opportunity to work on something related, yet quite different from my main research topic at EPFL. I really loved this because it gave me the chance to learn about the topic of compression and its challenges. I have received a lot of support on this from my colleagues at Google. Though this area is not directly related to my PhD topic, my knowledge in graph signal processing helped in determining the direction I should take while working on my internship project.

Did you write your own code?
Writing code is an important part of Google projects. For me it was a great opportunity to practice and receive feedback from very talented engineers. This allowed me to improve both my programming and algorithmic skills. At the end of my internship project we made our code public, which was a very easy process and I received a lot of help on it from the members of my team.

What key skills have you gained from your time at Google?
During my time at Google I have learnt a lot of exciting things about various compression algorithms and methodologies for conducting user studies. I also got hands-on experience with novel Google technologies for coding and code reviews. Furthermore, I participated in a very exciting robotics project with the Google Brain team. This gave me the chance to work with great researchers and engineers as well as allowed me to discover various connections between state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and neuroscience.

What impact has this internship experience had on your PhD?
My internship at Google broadened my horizons in different ways. It introduced me to various fields such as compression and neuroscience. It also enriched and diversified my knowledge, allowing me to look at my PhD research topic from a wider perspective. My internship inspired me to extend my PhD work to compression algorithms and seek for the possible improvements that can be done in this area using the power of graph signal processing.

Looking back on your experiences now: Why should a PhD student apply for an internship at Google? Any advice to offer?
Google is an amazing place to work. Here you can have an impact on both the research community and the real products. I recommend PhD students apply for an internship, because it is a great opportunity to work with and gain unique experiences from very smart people. At Google, I was amazed by the variety of research directions that people are working on and the freedom they have in choosing them. This combined with access to the most advanced and well-designed infrastructure gives you, as an intern, a great opportunity to do research that will impact people’s lives. Apart from these advantages – Google is a very fun place to work. There were numerous events organized to bring researchers from very different areas together to share knowledge and exchange ideas.